Election Section
Two SF Galleries Present Nostalgic Fare By JOHN McBRIDE
For an afternoon excursion to San Francisco, two galleries offer lively shows this week:
Gallery Paule Anglim
“I don’t know that I have a style. I just have stories.” Thus Jess, speaking in 1983, who died a little over a year ago. The Gallery Paule Anglim has mounted a show of some 35 works, both “paste-ups” and paintings, the latter rarely seen. The central image of the show, reproduced here, is “The Enamored Mage,” a portrait of Jess’ companion, the poet Robert Duncan, seen (with books) in the mid-1960s. At the very opening of the show is a charming, late photo of Jess by Leo Holub; back in the second “paste-up” gallery is Jess’ inked design for Robert’s volume of poetry, The Opening of the Field. The show is well-spaced, a challenging and true delight of unusual work; it closes Saturday, Jan. 29.
Gallery Paule Anglim, 14 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 433-2710. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Charles Campbell Gallery
Across town, Charles Campbell has celebrated his ninetieth birthday.
Arriving from Los Angeles in 1947 to open an art supply and then framing shop, Charles soon exhibited the work of the young painters at and around the nearby San Francisco Art Institute. Richard Diebenkorn, James Weeks, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Gordon Cook, Nathan Olivera, Manuel Neri, Christopher Brown, and Wayne Thiebaud are only a few of the painters he has championed. His new partner in the gallery, Steve Lopez has prepared this show of almost 150 works, mostly small, packed closely on the walls of the front gallery in alphabetical order. At the rear is the sun-lit office, with much other work, where Charles presides almost everyday.
The exhibition is a solid survey of those artists that have come, gone and returned in the over 50 years of the gallery. On the ground-floor is The Art Exchange, the gallery of Claire Carlevaro, who started in Berkeley on Shattuck Avenue and moved to San Francisco in the early nineties; treasures abound.
The Campbell show closes Feb. 19. The Charles Campbell Gallery, 647 Chestnut St., at Columbus. (415) 441-8680. Tuesday-Friday 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday noon-4 p.m.
The Art Exchange, 645 Chestnut St., (415) 474-4955. Tuesday-Saturday noon-6 p.m.
